Alison Balsom

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Alison Balsom

OBE

Balsom recording at Abbey Road in 2

Background information

Birth name Born

Genres

Occupation(s) Instrument

Years active Labels

Spouse

Alison Louise Balsom 7 October 1978

Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England

Classical

Musician, educator Trumpet

2001–present

EMI Classics · Hyperion · Warner Classics

Sam Mendes (m. 2017)

Website alisonbalsom.com (http://al

isonbalsom.com)

Balsom's voice

0:19

recorded 2012, as part of an audio description of the Globe Theatre for VocalEyes

Orchestras,[7] and she released her debut album with EMI Classics in 2002. In 2005, she released

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her second disc, Bach Works for Trumpet, as part of a contract with EMI Classics. In 2006, Balsom won 'Young British Classical Performer' at the Classical BRIT Awards and was awarded the 'Classic FM Listeners' Choice Award' at the Classic FM Gramophone Awards. She won 'Female Artist of the Year' at the 2009 and 2011 Classical BRIT Awards.

Her third album (the second disc in the EMI contract), Caprice, was released in September 2006, and her Italian Concertos disc was on the list of New York Times albums of the year. Balsom was a soloist at the 2009 Last Night of the Proms, performing, among other pieces, Haydn's Trumpet Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and a jazz arrangement of George Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away from Me" with mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly.

have been playing since I was in the 3rd year at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama – so since I was 21. I just fell in love with this instrument as soon as I started learning it, as it makes total sense of the whole Baroque era in terms of phrasing, colour and the difference in keys and certain notes of the scale, which you lose on a modern instrument such as the piccolo trumpet. I play various different makes but my favourite is by Egger of Switzerland."[10]

Balsom in 2011

She is a Visiting Professor of Trumpet at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.[11]

She gave the world premiere of Qigang Chen's Joie éternelle for solo trumpet and orchestra at the 2014 BBC Proms,[12] and Guy Barker's Lanterne of Light trumpet concerto at the 2015 BBC Proms. In addition to 14 years of solo appearances at the Proms, Balsom has also appeared at the iTunes Festival, Latitude Festival, Henley Festival, Un Violon Sur le Sable, France and Wege durch das Land, Germany.

In 2014 Balsom was chosen as one of 27 artists, including Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Florence Welch, and Sam Smith, to feature in one of BBC Music's first broadcasts, an extravagant cover of the 1966 Beach Boys classic, "God Only Knows", under the name of The Impossible Orchestra. This track marked a first-time collaboration between the Warner, Sony and Universal Music labels.[13]

Television presenter

In 2014, she returned to BBC Young Musician of the Year as a presenter of the category finals and semi-final of the competition alongside Miloš Karadaglić .[15] In 2016 she co-presented BBC Young Musician with Clemency Burton-Hill.[16]

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Festival director

Balsom succeeded Richard Rodney Bennett as President of Deal, Kent Festival in 2015. She was artistic director of the 2019 Cheltenham Music Festival,[17][18] then stepped down in July 2019 to concentrate on performing and recording.[19]

Honours and awards

Balsom was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to music.[20]

She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of Leicester (2015) [21] and Anglia Ruskin University, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Personal life

She has a son with the English conductor Edward Gardner.[22] In 2017, she married film director Sam Mendes. Their daughter was born in September 2017. [23]

Discography

Music for Trumpet and Organ (EMI Classics Debut, 2002)

The Fam'd Italian Masters (Hyperion, 2003) - With Crispian Steele-Perkins Bach worksfor Trumpet (EMI Classics, 2005)

Haydn and Hummel concertos/ Albinoni's Oboe Concerto Op. 9 No. 2, transcribed for trumpet / Vivaldi's Violin Concerto Op. 3 No. 9, arranged for trumpet and instrumental trio (BBC Music Magazine, 2010)

Seraph:Trumpet Concertos by Arutiunian, MacMillan,and Zimmerman (EMI Classics, 2012)

Alison Balsom (EMI Classics, 2012)

Sound the Trumpet: Royal Music of Purcell and Handel, also marketed as; Kings&

Queens (EMI Classics, 2012), and Sound the Trumpet-Gabriel Edition (Warner Classics, 2013)

Paris(Warner Classics, 2014)

Légende (Warner Classics, 2016)

Jubilo(Warner Classics, 2016) - Christmas Album including Fasch, Bach, Torelli and Corelli concerti

Royal Fireworks(Warner Classics, 2019) Magic Trumpet (Warner Classics, 2020) Quiet City (Warner Classics, 2022)

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Awards

Equipment

Trumpet: Schilke models E3L E-flat/D trumpet, E3L-4 E-flat trumpet, G1L G/F trumpet, P7-4 B- flat/A piccolo trumpet, S22CHD C trumpet; mouthpiece: Schilke 6A4a.[27]